This morning, as I was preparing to start my eleven o'clock class (ENG 111 - the basic composition course that every student has to take), one of my students turned to me and told me the most wonderful news. She had scored very well (nearly perfect) on a writing assignment in another class - this assignment required her to do research, use citations, and develop her ideas in a highly organized fashion. She smiled as she said, "The teacher told me that it was easy to read." She knew I'd love that. After all, it's something that I've repeated about a thousand times since the start of the semester - your writing is all about your audience. How do you get your ideas, your knowledge, your experiences across to someone who doesn't live inside your head? She obviously "got it." And she knew that that statement was a fantastic compliment to her writing.
That is the kind of moment that makes me want to keep doing this forever. I love it when students recognize the impact of what we talk about in composition - when they see how the concepts translate from one context to another - when they engage in active transfer (a buzzword in the education world) from one class to the next. Seeing students make connections is what makes my day. Isn't that really what so much of our lives are about? Connection? Connection to one another...connection between that beautiful image in a poem to the way we feel about our spouses...connection from that discussion in anatomy to the lecture in graphic design...connection between that truth in one area to the truth in another. When a student, thoughtful and wrestling with ideas, starts a sentence with, "It's kind of like..." I just want to go ahead and say "Yes" before I ever hear what that student is connecting to. It doesn't matter, really, in the end - what matters is the fact that a connection was made - a tiny thread that links one idea to another. Eventually, more threads emerge, and the student begins to weave a tapestry of knowledge that decorates the space inside her head. I think that is quite possibly the most beautiful creation in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment